This invention relates to a user detection method and apparatus for an automatic teller machine (ATM) or other user device.
The operating strategy of Commercial Banks and Thrift Institutions to compete for increased market share by providing expanded customer service, and the need to reduce labor costs by the utilization of automated equipment have been strong forces that have hastened the investment in and the proliferation of the use of automatic teller machines (ATMs). These publicly-operated terminals typically provide banking services twenty-four hours per day and, being operated by the account holder, do not require the participation of an employee of the financial institution in the normal operation of the ATM. Because of the wide availability of ATMs to account holders relative to location as well as hours of operation, their capability to process a broad range of financial transactions, and their ease of use, the ATM concept has attained considerable public acceptance.
However, as is to be expected when an exceedingly complex machine is being operated by the general public, certain problems in the use of an ATM do occur. The manufacturer of an ATM strives to design the machine in such a way that the actions of the public user do not compromise the ability of the ATM to continue to perform financial transactions, while maintaining accurate control of the information, money, and bank cards (e.g., credit cards, debit cards) involved in the transaction. In addition to insuring the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of the financial transaction, the ATM must provide the untrained user with sufficient instructions to allow the user to successfully consummate the desired transaction, e.g., Cash Withdrawal, Credit Inquiry, Bill Payment, Funds Transfer, Cash Deposit, and so forth.
The creative efforts of ATM developers have yielded useful features that are essentially unique to ATMs. Such devices as bill dispensing mechanisms, integrated keyboard displays, card-capturing devices, magnetic stripe card readers, keyboards for entering secret identification numbers, vandal doors, etc. have gone far in providing a reliable, intelligent terminal.
Nevertheless, operational problems do occur with ATMs. Many of these problems result from the unwillingness or inability of some of the general public to follow the sequential instructions provided by the ATM. For example, the unskilled user of an ATM upon arriving at the ATM may not read, or understand, the instructions telling the user to insert the user's magnetic stripe card into the card reader to activate the terminal and to initiate the sequence of events leading to the completion of a financial transaction. Since the terminal has no indication that a user is present thereat until a card is inserted in the reader, and since the would-be user is unaware of the need to insert a card or where to insert it, a stand-off situation will occur.
Another possible situation may occur in which a user successfully activates the ATM and proceeds partially through the sequential steps of a financial transaction only to walk away for some reason without completing the transaction. In this situation, the ATM, not aware that the user has departed, is in a vulnerable position with its vandal door open awaiting for the user to perform the next data entry. In the usual design of ATMs, internal timing circuitry would eventually cause the transaction to be aborted, the bank card retained, and the vandal door closed. However, since many users are slow and deliberate in using ATMs, the time duration required before the terminal will abort the transaction and secure the vandal door is made quite substantial.
A further possible situation may occur when the user successfully completes the financial transaction (makes a cash withdrawal, for example) and then walks away from the ATM leaving the user's bank card protruding from the card reader. Depending on the design of the ATM, the bank card will remain in the entrance of the card reader until it is withdrawn by the next user, or is recaptured by the card reader after a timeout has occurred. In either event, the bank card will not be in the possession of the account holder.
It is apparent that the above situations, as well as others of a similar kind, could be substantially avoided if the ATM was provided with a method and apparatus that would indicate to it that a would-be user has arrived within a defined user area of the machine and/or that the current user has departed from such defined user area prior to completion of the transaction in process. If the ATM was aware that a would-be user is standing in a user operating zone within the defined user area of the machine but has not inserted a bank card into the card reader, some appropriate form of additional communications, such as a spoken greeting and instruction by means of speech synthesis technology, expanded messages on the visual display, audible tones from the area of the card reader, and so forth, may be used to inform the unskilled user that the user's bank card should be inserted into the card reader to initiate the transaction sequence. The ability of the ATM to be aware that a current user is departing from the user operating zone and the defined user area prior to completion of the current transaction or prior to reclaiming the user's bank card would allow spoken words (speech synthesis) or audible signals to call the user back to finish the transaction or reclaim the user's bank card.
A rather direct means of sensing the presence of a would-be user in a user operating zone of an ATM would be the installation of a switch plate in front of the ATM that is activated by the physical weight of the user. In general, the foregoing is not a really practical solution since the ATMs are typically installed in public places, for example, in bank walls next to public sidewalks, in shopping mall, and in lobbies of public buildings, in which cases the installer of the ATM does not have the freedom to install a switch plate in front of the ATM because of legal restrictions, economic constraints, and concerns for reliability in severe weather.
Other areas of human endeavor have given rise to the need to sense the presence of an object within a defined area, an example being ultrasonic burglar alarms in which a high frequency sound is echoed by the intruder and detected by the alarm device. In this application, the physical presence of the intruder is the primary measurement of concern rather than the specific distance from the alarm to the intruder. In a photographic application, the distance to the nearest object is determined by the travel time of sound waves in order to control the focal setting of the camera lens. In contrast, and as pointed out above, a need exists for a method and apparatus for an ATM that utilizes both the sensing of physical presence of a user as well as the measurement of the distance of the user from the ATM to provide a determination if a user is actually stationary within the user area of the terminal for a sufficient time to be considered a user as compared to a person who is merely walking past the terminal.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a detector system, capable of providing output signals indicative of a user's presence both within a defined user area associated with a user device and a user operating zone within the user area, the user's continued presence therein, the user's movement therein towards or away from the user device, and the user's departure from either the user area of the operating zone, comprises transducer transceiver means, ranging circuit means, distance measuring circuit means coupled to the ranging circuit means, and computer means coupled to the distance measuring circuit means operative to provide the output signals.